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50 ways to help the planet
Check out 50 ways to help the planet. My favourites? Shower with your partner Invest in your own reusable coffee cup Picnic with a marker pen
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Search · 2008-04-01 to 2008-04-30 · Page 2
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Searching: posts Sorted by: newest Results: 31–60 of 135
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A broadband world
So John Key has announced that a National-led government would spend "up to" $1.5 billion on fibre optic cable to the home. Well that's a good thing right? Even I can appreciate the importance of Kiwi homes and businesses getting access to high speed broadband (even…
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The cart before the horse
The internet is awesome; you can use email, learn heaps, and read sites like The Standard. Faster internet is awesomer; you can watch the Porirua market video without having to wait for it to buffer. Personally, I can't wait until I'm getting the internet through…
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I’ve got a solution, what’s the problem?
The junior doctors' strike is a difficult issue. On the one hand, these are highly valuable workers whom we can't afford to lose overseas and they do work long hours in difficult conditions. On the other hand, the pay rise they want would cost $50…
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Behind TV Analysts, Pentagon’s Hidden Hand
The NY Times reports on the symbiotic relationship between media "military analysts" and the Bush administration. Records and interviews show how the Bush administration has used its control over access and information in an effort to transform the analysts into a kind of media Trojan…
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Extra weight
A reader pointed out a set of hidden spam links that had attached themselves to the footer of the site. I'd noticed them previously and thought that I'd corrected them (see comment). But they turned up again. Turns out it was from an interesting flaw…
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Twin peaks
We have all heard of the peak oil crisis that is already manifesting itself in fuel prices. Now, consider peak food, the point where our ability to produce food peaks even as demand grows. Wheat was the first plant to be domesticated, around 10,000 years…
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Owen Glenn’s secret shame
As Robinsod notes below in his insightful review of Wishart's Absolute Power it's abundantly clear that the author specialises in a particular brand of "idiocy, madness and paranoia". I was particularly intrigued by the sensationalist chapter accusing Owen Glenn of Mafia connections. The basis for…
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What would National do?: Emigration
Simon Power has hit on the fact that Stats New Zealand produces migration figures every month, and that means every month he gets to report the number of New Zealanders heading for Australia as if a) the number is unprecedented, which it is not b)…
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Clearly confused but no conspiracy
If there's one thing the confused saga of Mike Williams and the Labour Party's secret plot to use KiwiSaver and Working for Families pamphlets as campaign material has shown is that there never was a secret Labour Party plot to use KiwiSaver and Working for…
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Book review: Absolute Power
As regular readers will know, we've long refused to let Robinsod write for us due to his penchant for filth and gutter politics. But seeing as the book he's offered to review for us is written by Ian Wishart we felt it was somehow appropriate.…
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Emigration in perspective
Last year, 99.33% of New Zealand citizens liked their country so much they stayed. Some left for short periods, and some left forever but they were more than replaced by new New Zealanders who also think this is a great place to live. There really is nothing…
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Blogger sweatshop
(Via BoingBoing.net)
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Interview the leaders V: Maori Party
Even amateur, part-time bloggers sometimes make mistakes, and last week we didn't send Clark her questions until Wednesday, rather than Monday, due to a miscommunication between ourselves. So, we extended her deadline to this Wednesday. We'll post her replies when we get them. In the…
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National makes work rights the defining issue
National's strategy, the strategy of a weak party, is to present a ‘small target' by promising to change virtually nothing if they were in government. Problem is, their small target has a great big bull's-eye on it called work rights. With flip-flops on health, education,…
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Reading the tealeaves
One News reports on their Colmar Brunton poll showing a 19 point lead to National and Key ahead in the preferred PM stakes: Labour continues to trail National - There's more bad news for Labour in the latest ONE News Colmar Brunton poll. It's trailing…
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Conflicting polls
The two political polls on TV last night say far more about the limitations of political polling than they do about the likely makeup of the next Parliament. Last night's TVNZ poll, conducted by New Zealand's least reliable polling company, showed National gaining ground, Labour…
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Note to John: get a new lawyer
John Key: ' my lawyer actually does those things clearly [he] had the wrong information.' That's how Slippery John explained why legal documents showed him living at different addresses at the same time. For election purposes he had claimed to be living at his $1.1…
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Ralston sez: leave poor Johnny alone
In the Herald today, Bill Ralston sticks up for poor John Key who has been the subject of personal political attacks recently. Like Key, Ralston wonders what is "the cost of the Government using countless bureaucrats to endlessly scour records in an attempt to discover…
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ACT: shamelessly campaigning with your money
Earlier in the week we heard that Heather Roy may have broken the Electoral Finance Act by including party advertising messages in her weekly taxpayer funded newsletters without the required authorisation by ACT's financial agent. This time round she's added the necessary authorisation but decided…
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Hutchison chases the Green Fairy
Earlier this week, John Key had a whinge about 'personal' political attacks on him. Particularly, he thought it was a waste of taxpayers' money that some Labour MPs wrote and performed a version of The Gambler mocking him. The song was written in a pub…
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Business to Key: ‘You’re ruining everything’
Business is starting to get worried. This was meant to, finally, be the year that they got the Left out of government and started making New Zealand work for the business elite again. But there's a problem: the man they chose for the job. Sure,…
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Herald’s anti-EFA campaign in tatters
As predicted by The Standard earlier this week, the Press Council has upheld the Coalition for Open Government's complaint against the NZ Herald's Electoral Finance Bill campaign. The Press Council found that the Herald's front-page editorial last year contained a "mis-statement of fact", which the…
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Last chance to grill Rodney
Remember, our party leader in the 'interview the leaders' series this week is ACT's Rodney Hide. Questions are picked on Sunday, so take the opportunity while you can. Ask them here. Helen Clark's respones are due to be posted on Monday.
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A ring of truth in the Hollow Men
Congratulations to Dr Brash for fronting up and going to see the play The Hollow Men at the Maidment Theatre in Auckland (that's based on Nicky Hager's book of the same name). Dr Brash admitted some parts of The Hollow Men were spot on. I…
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The shape of things to come
With the loss of 500 ANZ National jobs to Bangalore India and 430 jobs from Fisher and Paykel to Mexico announced today, a pattern is emerging. The race to the bottom has picked up speed. Companies are increasingly outsourcing their work to low wage economies,…
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Spot the difference
Hmm, spot the difference in the headlines of two press releases out today: 'Fisher & Paykel Appliances Announces Global Manufacturing Strategy' 'Next Steps in ANZ National's business transformation' Cut out the weasel words and what is the net result 930 fewer jobs in New Zealand.…
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Flip-flopping at warp speed
On Monday, I wrote 'Stay tuned for National's next assets policy, due out sometime next week.' It seems I miscalculated. Here's what Key had to say on asset sales today on newstalkzb: 'I'm going to go into an election with a group of policies and…
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Cost of benefit system plummeting
Continuing our benefits theme, here's a look at how much the benefit system costs you. The figures are the combined expenditure by the Government on the Unemployment, Sickness, Invalids', and Domestic Purposes benefits per day per working age New Zealander, in 2007 dollars. Sources: MSD…
economy election 2008 john key labour national workers' rights
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If I were the Maori Party’s campaign strategist
The Maori Party is in an enviable position going into this year's election. It is likely Kingmaker, and the more seats it gets the more likely it will occupy that ground. Polls project the Maori Party to possibly win all seven Maori roll seats while…